1:4:7 Solutions (Part 4)

Outside of The Slingshot, Char initiated a second scan. A map of the entire facility and the surrounding areas appeared. The wireframe finished constructing then came the blips. One hundred and four Amalgam and fifty two organics; now outside, some of those organic blips began to differentiate. “You included, we’ve got three Lores outside and with me, there’s five Chars.” Char pointed to the various points of light that were moving around the exterior of the campus or its external installations. “Still good for now, no-one new.”
“Could we run a temporal scan? Get a better idea of when the other us will arrive?” Lore was still trying to understand her interface.
“Can I have your Breacher? I need a secondary processor.” She held out her hand. They removed their Breacher and passed it to her.
“I’ve been wondering, is there actually any difference between my Breacher and your teleporter?” Lore watched as she worked. Char stopped for a moment, a shocked look crossed her face as she registered Lore’s question.
“Wow.” She stared at them. “I really don’t know how to start. Putting it simply, it’s like I’ve got a scalpel and you’ve got a chainsaw.” She began the scan then sidelined it to bring up a virtual whiteboard to aid her explanation. “This is our reality.” She drew a straight line and filled the space above it. “This is the universal barrier.” She drew a second, parallel line leaving a gap between the two which she coloured a different colour. “And this, is the void.” She pointed to the final layer. “My teleporter allows for time and space travel by miniaturising us to allow for travel along the edge of the universal barrier.” Char traced her finger along the line that separated the universal barrier and reality. “Like a boat on water.” She smiled; it soon faded. “Then humanity decided to try and design space-time travel and you overdid it. Like always.”
“How?” Lore was concerned at how angry she seemed.
“Every time you Breach, you tear a hole in reality straight to the universal barrier. To get to your destination, another hole’s needed so you ‘Breach’ the between space/reality boarder again and out you pop. Less boat more mining drill.” She demonstrated by creating two holes in the border line and connecting them with a tunnel.
Lore scratched their temple. “How is that bad though?”
“To Breach once uses ten times the power I would need to go the same distance and it has to go somewhere because the universal barrier exists in harmony so cannot accept any new energy.” Char filled the Breach tube drawing with yellow ink. “The energy goes through the tube then out of the other end with you and dissipates, creating Saturated points.”
“But Saturated points make great hiding spaces from other time travellers.” Lore countered.
Char nodded. “They might but they also create points of temporal weakness. Fluidic time may be malleable but there are limits to the changes you can make. The weakness created by Saturated points allows those limits to be stretched a little. If you’ve got a saturated point a little too close to a Fixed point and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Look at Austria in the late eighteen hundreds. There are Saturated points everywhere from people trying to change history in a major way. They all failed because they all realised they couldn’t go through with it in the end but, with all of that temporal weakening, they might have been able to get away with it if they wanted to.”
“Is that the only disadvantage then? Saturated points can be dangerous if exploited by the wrong people?” Lore watched as she squirmed a little, confirming they were right. “Sounds like someone might be a little jealous.”
“Why would I be jealous? My people invented time travel first and created the safest form known to any species.” Char avoided eye contact.
“I’m guessing Breachers can do something your teleporter can’t do.” Lore waited for her to confirm their suspicions.
She sighed, defeated. “Because you navigate through the universal barrier, you need a lot more processing power making your Breacher better for shorter jumps into tight spots and it does longer jumps to specific times more accurately. Your margin for error is much smaller because of the risks involved.”
“I’m guessing it’s also a better scanner too.” As soon as Char touched the Breacher to her teleporter, the scan speed increased tenfold.
“Slightly.” She grumbled. The scan progressed much faster and eventually yielded a result. “In about ten minutes, we’re all going to be called to Pott’s talk. They arrive half way through judging from this. They’ll sneak into the talk then get caught escaping when we take the picture.”
“Well, that’s something.” Lore smiled. Char handed back their Breacher. “Just to save us a bit of time, can your scanner tell us where the points of weakness are in this campus?”
“It’s picked up a few. Mainly The Slingshot’s building core but there’s a couple in and around the main building that I think we should investigate given our mystery Lore and Char go through there before meeting us at Pott’s presentation.” Char swiped at the map and pointed to a room just off the courtyard that stretched between the courtyard and the exterior of the campus, acting as a tunnel of sorts between the two outdoor areas.

They walked over to the area Char pointed out. There was a portcullis style door on either side of the tunnel with doors on either side of the interior wall. Two grooves had been carved into the ground from where vehicles had passed through carrying the materials to build The Slingshot.
“Good point of entry?” Char pointed at the gateway.
Lore nodded. “It is but, it would probably also be the easiest point to defend. If The Guild have people deployed here then I doubt they’d forget to block this up or at least have people stationed at it. Is this on the scan we made on The Destiny?”
“No but I can update it from here. Hopefully it gets to them in time.” Char highlighted the tunnel then sent the updated schematics to the future. “Save them from potentially falling into a trap.”
“Where’s the next one?” Lore looked over at Char’s map.
“The secondary server room. It’s only a backup but if the main server goes offline, it’s a much easier target.” She pointed to the pip on her map. “It’s not too far away if you want to go have a look?” Lore nodded. Char started walking but they lagged behind slightly. “Are you okay?”
Lore shrugged. “You ever wonder if there’s a better way to do all of this?”
“There probably is but there are more of them than there are of us so it wouldn’t work out our way.” Char took Lore’s hand.
“Crait’s only one person and look at what they’ve achieved.” Lore gestured to the campus around them. “In a way, they helped build this. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them; they’ve single handedly led humanity through a myriad of changes to the timeline and they’ve created this universe where humanity is the dominant power. One person.”
Char wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, we’re two people. Whatever they’ve done, I’m sure we can undo it. Stuff the council, if we’re going to change things, we’ve got to plan ahead. Something they’ve forgotten.”
“No point planning for the future if you’re only going to reset the timeline.” Lore thought about what Char said. “I think we need to start.”
“Maybe we wait until we’re done here. Keep it on the back burner for now. One thing at a time.” Char giggled as she led them to their second destination.
The secondary server room was kept unusually but not uncomfortably cold. Their breath crystallised in the air as they looked around for any potential vulnerabilities. At first, nothing stood out but then it became strangely clear what the weakness was.
“Why are all of the servers in this room powered by just one cable?” Lore was tempted to unplug it just to see what would happen. “Well, at least we know what to look out for.”
“Makes the job easier.” Char noted the weakness then double checked her scanning algorithm to see if there were any they had missed. “I’ve broadened the definitions of threat and, surprisingly, there are more than two rooms like this…”
“How did they survive so long?” Lore shook their head.
Char chuckled. “I think it’s just here and the central cores we really need to worry about. I doubt The Protectorate are going to be too concerned about unplugging the Fabrication matrix.”
They turned to leave but one of the server monitors lit up. “Attention all Lores and Chars: Potts’ meeting will be commencing in the next five minutes. Attendance is mandatory. Please report to the western face of The Slingshot. We will be holding the meeting outside so bring a hat, it may run long.” The Lore announcing the meeting didn’t seem too pleased about the location.
“Mandatory…” Lore screwed up their face. “We best get going then.”

Their five minutes were almost up and only Lore and Char were waiting outside of The Slingshot. Not even Potts was there. They waited silently. The sun wasn’t as bad as the Lore’s warning led them to believe. The second before the time was up, twelve Breacher flashes blinded them, appearing from all sides.
“Thanks for coming… I guess… This really should have been a private meeting between me and The First but we’re all here now so I suppose we’ll roll with it.” Potts started. “We’ve got The Slingshot working which is all well and good but there’s another problem… How do we get everyone to Quatarr?”
“We’ve been over this!” One of the Lores shouted.
Their Char continued. “Show us your massive ship!” She jeered.
Potts shook their head. “Alright then, Truly and I have used the time you so graciously gave us and have some preliminary designs for a carrier vessel that can get not just us but all of our ships and equipment safely through The Slingshot and to Quatarr.” They unveiled the blueprint. “I give you… As yet unnamed.”
The crowd silently stared at the design. Some attempted to move closer to get a better look but struggled as their doppelgangers refused to move. Eventually, Potts made the blueprint larger and the movement stopped. Near silent tittering started and soon became a murmur that spread across the group. Then silence.
“What are we thinking?” Potts awkwardly asked.
“It’s good if we wanted a flying battery. It’s mostly power plants and Quantum storage. There’s what? A dozen rooms and a hangar bay door that leads to a hangar that couldn’t hold a pencil, let alone a ship. What’s going on?” Sam’s question encouraged some to agree with them.
“I have been working on this new technology this ship is the perfect opportunity to make the most of it.” The display changed to show a projector. “I was given this by a group of nomads. They called it a Dimensional Projector. When properly configured, it allows for the internal dimensions of any space to be expanded by projecting an alternative, three dimensional space within its boundaries.” There were a lot of confused faces. “It makes things bigger or smaller on the inside.” The audience sounded impressed.
“But if the ship’s going to be that big anyway, why do we need the projectors?” Sam followed up.
Potts returned to the designs of the ship. “That’s a good question…” They scratched their philtrum in thought. “Protection. If we built the ship to simply act as a carrier and we built it following the conventional rules of space then it would be almost the exact same size yes, but, my design’s use of dimensional projectors allows for a greater separation of liveable space and the vacuum. This ship could handle the worst of The Guild’s armaments and more because each system has a backup system and at least three redundancies. We’re using it to head to one of the most fortified positions in the known galaxy… It needs to be tough.” The crowd let out a synchronised ‘oh’.
“That’s all well and good but, if we’re putting all of our ships in this ship, won’t all of us be in the past? How will we activate the tether?” One of the Chars asked.
“Ah.” Potts looked to Truly. She shrugged.
Lore put their hand up. “Just don’t put all of your ships in there then…” Char couldn’t stifle her laugh. “Send the carrier ship to Quatarr in the present then send a handful of ships to the past.”
“Genius!” A Lore shouted.
“It’s so simple.” A Char mumbled in disbelief, garnering a smile from the other Chars around her.
“There we go then!” Potts clapped. “We load most of our ships in there then we send a handful back to the past to get things ready back then.”
“The simplest answer is usually the correct one.” Truly smiled. “Occam’s Razor…”
“And there’s the name!” Potts typed on their keyboard. The As Yet Unnamed became The Occam’s Razor. “Now we’ve just got to build the bugger.” All present groaned.
“But first, a picture to commemorate the event” Truly gestured for the Lores and Chars to squish in to fit into the frame. Out of the corner of their eye, a flash of whitish-green light. “Smile!” The camera flashed but there was another flash that, seemingly, only Lore and Char saw.
“They’re here.” Lore whispered to Char.
“I know. Do they know?” Char looked around.
“I don’t think so.” Lore shrugged. “We work on the assumption they don’t.” Char agreed.
“I’ve singled them out so we’ll be able to keep an eye on them… As long as they stay outside.” Char’s map now had only four dots on it. Her and Lore and the newcomers. Doubles.